Gigya account

Manchester United 2-2 Arsenal

Micki-Youhavetopushyourselftotheend

Henrikh Mkhitaryan says our desire and commitment saw us through to the final whistle at Old Trafford, earning a point from a highly competitive encounter against Manchester United.

The midfielder was disappointed that we were unable to return from the north west with all three points after twice taking the lead, but said the team refused to buckle at the end, despite the physical exertions of Sunday's north London derby victory.

"There is a lot of frustration because we should have won today," Mkhitaryan told Arsenal Media. "I think we deserved to win but we drew. We were trying to score the third goal but unfortunately we couldn’t.

"Even if you have tired legs, the most important thing is to be fresh in the brain, in the mind. If you force yourself, if you push yourself to get to the end, then you will do that. You don’t have to listen to your legs, even if they are heavy or it’s hard to play. You have to do the maximum."

We held on to make it 20 games unbeaten in all competitions, a run stretching back to August, but that was small consolation for the Armenian at full-time.

"Maybe that’s the positive to take from tonight, maybe it’s not," he said. "Everyone wanted to win today, especially at Old Trafford. We know that it’s always hard to win here.

"At the end of the day, we’re also happy to get this point and try to win the next games. We want to be in the top four, so it’s very important to win every game."

WhatthelatestonHoldingandRamsey?

We may have kept our unbeaten run going on Wednesday night, but it came at a price as both Rob Holding and Aaron Ramsey picked up injuries.

So what is the latest on the pair? This is what Unai Emery told the media afterwards:

on Rob Holding and Aaron Ramsey...
The worst for us today was the news with Rob Holding. We are going to wait for what the doctor tells us but it is maybe a big injury. We are going to wait, it is his knee. The other is Aaron Ramsey, but it is a small injury with him. After the two injuries, every player played with good commitment and mentality to keep the performance [going] in a difficult moment and we could not control the game like we want for the 90 minutes, but the second half gives us confidence for this draw.

Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.

Quotes

Mustafi-Wehadtobeclevererandmoreaware

Shkodran Mustafi admits that we should have shown greater awareness each time we took the lead at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.

The centre back opened the scoring for us, only for Anthony Martial to hit back straight away, and the same thing happened in the second half with Jesse Lingard equalising seconds after Alex Lacazette had put us back in front.

Mustafi had mixed emotions after the game, and this is what he told the media:

on the draw…
We tried everything to get the three points and take the three points home. We went in front, conceded and then went in front again. Then we conceded and that’s where we have to be a little bit more clever. We should’ve been aware of the danger and not conceded the second one. At the end of the day, we’ve had two big games against Tottenham at the weekend and then Manchester United away, and we’ve got four points from them. I think we can move on from that.

on whether the Spurs game took a lot out of the players…
They had a game at the weekend as well. When you play a derby, you probably give 110 per cent, but we’re not here to look for excuses. I think we could’ve done better today and we had a lot of opportunities when we were going forward and we were quite dangerous. We put in a lot of crosses, especially down our left side. If we were a little bit luckier, we could’ve got all three points, but we have to take the point. It was important not to lose it. We take the draw and we go into the next game.

Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.

'It’sahardresulttotakehavingbeenahead'

Alex iwobi was a frustrated figure after our 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Wednesday night.

The Nigeria international felt that we did enough to win the game, and this is what he told the media:

on the game…
We knew it was going to be a difficult game because Old Trafford is always a tough place to come. I guess it’s a hard one to take because we were ahead twice. Both teams fought hard, though, so I guess a draw is a fair result for both teams.

on what we could have done to get a better result…
Maybe it’s just a mental thing of staying focused. We got a bit excited and tried to rush forward where we shouldn’t have. Maybe it’s about just making sure we settle things down a bit.

on the fans singing ‘We’ve got our Arsenal back’…
Twenty games unbeaten says it all. The fans can see that we’re back to our best and you can see that too on the pitch. Every team is playing well this season so it’s going to be tough, but we’ll just keep going. We can only focus on our own performances.

on 20 games unbeaten…
We’re very happy with how we’re playing and everyone’s confident. Our manager is always trying to improve things, so we’re never settling. We’re just trying to get better game by game.

on how much more is to come…
There’s just the small details that everyone can improve on. We’ll go back into training and prepare for Saturday now.

Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.

ManchesterUnited2-2Arsenal:Howithappened

WHAT HAPPENED

We had to settle for a draw in a scrappy, disjointed match at Old Trafford, despite twice taking the lead.

The four goals summed up the match, which although was lacking in in quality, was not short on drama.

But there will be a huge sense of frustration that we twice threw away leads, conceding within moments of taking the lead on each occasion.

After a fairly uneventful opening 25 minutes, we broke the deadlock when David De Gea failed to hold a Shkodran Mustafi header from a corner. The keeper could only palm the ball up and over the line – the goal was awarded with the aid of the goal-line technology, with Ander Herrera failing to make his clearance in time.

Our lead lasted barely five minutes though. Bernd Leno did superbly to keep out a free-kick from Marcos Rojo but Herrera kept the loose ball alive, cut it back to the centre and Anthony Martial tucked home the equaliser.

To say the rest of the half was scrappy would be an understatement. First Rob Holding was forced off with a knee injury, Rojo was then fortunate not to see red for a late lunge on Matteo Guendouzi. He was only booked by Andre Marriner - one of five yellow cards in a crazy five-minute spell to end the half.

Laca gives us the lead... but it doesn't last for long

The second half continued in a fragmented fashion, until substitute Alexandre Lacazette gave us the lead, and it was a goal befitting the haphazard nature of the game. Rojo gave the ball away in midfield, we sprang forward, released Lacazette who was tackled by Rojo when through on goal, but the ball ricocheted into the net.

Once again our joy was shortlived. From the kick off United launched the ball forward, Read Kolasinac failed to get enough on the backpass and Jesse Lingard pounced to level.

There were 74 seconds between the goals, Unai Emery was rightfully livid on the touchline.

We kept coming though. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was denied from close range, then saw a curling effort well saved by De Gea, while Henrikh Mkhitaryan also shot just wide at the near post.

Mkhitaryan had the ball in the net late on, but was ruled offside, as we extended our unbeaten run to 20 games.